China reduces risk levels, but Xi wary

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping has warned against complacency in the fight to curb the coronavirus outbreak in China even as the country on Thursday classified all its counties or regions as “low-risk” for Covid-19.

The decision to lower the risk level was taken as no domestic cases were reported in the Chinese mainland for four consecutive days as of Wednesday, and no new deaths for 22 consecutive days, national health commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on Thursday.

The mainland reported two new imported Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 1,680. China has 82,885 confirmed infections and 4,633 fatalities.

Xi warned officials against “relaxing” in their fight against the pandemic despite the dramatic fall in numbers. “Xi stressed that authorities can afford zero complacency in their work on all fronts to consolidate the outcome of epidemic containment,” state media quoted him as saying at a meeting of the Communist Party.